> 1: In fact, I think that meta-packages should only have recommendations and > suggestions, since they are automatically installed by a default Debian > configuration.
I agree that Debian's dependency management would benefit from some extra refinements. The above suggestion is not quite sufficient, since for those users (like me) which don't want to auto-install recommendations, it means that "aptitude install gnome" becomes a no-op, whereas the user's intention is very clearly different. So, my take on it is that Debian should add a new sort of dependency (call it "important"), which is stronger than a "recommendation", but which the user can disable. But she couldn't disable them all-at-once like "recommendations", instead she would have to disable them one at a time. Further along this route, I'd like APT to let me specify the packages I want declaratively, with a file in which I list: - the packages that need to be installed (equivalent to the packages that are marked as manually installed rather than auto-installed as part of dependencies). - the dependencies that should be ignored/overruled. - the "pin <foo> to version <bar>" (where <bar> ideally could also be "stable", "testing", ...). - plus more constraints like "stay away from <foo>" (so that if <foo> is needed by some chain of dependencies, then I want APT to give me an error rather than to install it, so I can try and work around the problem). Stefan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/jwviowwk8h8.fsf-monnier+gmane.linux.debian.u...@gnu.org